Vodafone has lowered its upfront iPhone 4S fee by up to £120, in a move that brings the provider's pre-order pricing down to the level of its competitors.
The 16GB version has been lowered to £239 on the Vodafone's most inexpensive price plan, a drop of £120. It's down £80 to £359 for the 32GB version, and a £70 shaving has …

COMMENTS

WOW

"iPhone4s launch was a total flop"

By who's reckoning? Because Apple didn't release the iPhone 5 everybody convinced themselves was coming (despite their record of 'S' phone releases), or because it's already broken all pre-order records? I'm no Apple fan, I'm massively disappointed in the five faulty iPhone 4 handsets I've had, but you have to judge them on the product they make, not the one some people wished they had...

a million pre-orders..

.. Getting a phone for the first time is ***very*** different from renewing a contract..

the millions already owning iphone 3gs who are coming out of contract and holding on from entering a new one waiting for the new iphone (regardless of 5 or 4 S or 4GS etc) are the ones who are doing the majority of the pre-orders..

The true sale levels will be known once the initial sales are complete (atleast six weeks) and then the monthly regular volumes will come into place.. It would be atleast equal to the current iPhone 4 volumes and should not be massively high or low.. (For example, every time I speak with Vodafone customer service they are always ready to throw in a 16GB iphone 4 for free in a 30 or 35 pound contract.. Who will not buy one at that deal? They will continue with 4S now.. And the sales volume will be steady.. )

But if Apple had delivered an iPhone with some popular features (at leaas a bigger screen - the most popular request ever) then the pre-orders would include people who were on the fence and whether that volume would be significantly better than the current pre-orders volume or not is a question the sales analysts will be pondering over in the coming months..

In other words.....

Everyone's a loser with the 4s

Vodafone have been reminding me i can upgrade for a while since i am now out of contract.

I told them i would have an iPhone 5 when they came along.... now that they haven't vodafone want me to get a 4s, which i don't plan on doing... 2 year contract for something that is out dated tech already... and to top it all the rumour mill on the samsung galaxy 3 is sounding promising.

Plan details seem to have changed a bit

When I checked the Vodafone website on Monday, it said that contract plans of more than £40 a month would have 25MB a day of European data roaming for free - I thought great, the £41 a month 18-month plan would be useful as I travel to Europe a fair bit. When I look today, the "Data Abroad" footnote now says its only valid for plans of 1200 monthly minutes or more (in my case, that would be the £51 a month plan) - so overall I will actually LOSE with the new pricing!

re: prices?

"I've always wondered, if apple dropped themselves (or had their product priced? Not sure how it works) below the price of other phones, would they still be as popular?

I suspect not."

From what a number of friends in the industry (e.g. managers of high street shops) have said, yes - and probably more so. An awful lot of people go in asking about a iPhone, but end up getting another smartphone because they can get the handset for free - that's the main driving force why they went for something else. That's not to say, they weren't better off going for something else, incidentally.

Before the iPhone 3G, the price of the iPhone was cut over here to reduce inventory and they flew off the shelves. I would argue this happened because people thought they were getting a 'bargain' or getting a product at a more acceptable price point to them.

For what its worth, customer satisfaction surveys have always shown great results for the iPhone with a large proportion saying thy're planning to get a new iPhone when they upgrade - I doubt this is because of how the iPhone is priced.

You are right..

.. Yes, if iPhone prices are dropped actually most of the other phones will not sell at all.. (well, the geeks and nerds - and me too ) will still get one of the others - androids, win-phos etc..

Mythical Reasons for people happy to stay with iPhone --

1. Reliability - It is half a myth.. You drop it once and the glass shatters before you can take a breath.. Regardless of the app test team doing a great job, apps still fail and crash and stay unresponsive etc.. One only has to look at Apple forums for complaints..

2. Apps & Games -- Again at this stage it is half a myth..--- You get angry birds free and also at HD resolution in a bigger screen in Android and loads of other games in all devices (heck, I got angry birds HD in my touchpad and angry birds in pre3! A system that is DOA in its truest sense..) A number of games are still uniquely iPhone/iPad -- monopoly comes to mind.. (Primary reason for me to leave iPhone - spent so much time on monopoly that the only way I can cure my addiction was to sell it and go away from it)

Real reasons why people are staying with iPhone (iPad ) --

1. Intuitive and Ease of use - The interface is really good (atleast from 3G onwards) and very usable.. No need to read the manual. (except in some cases.. compare that to playbook where I was waiting in Dixons for 10 minutes to find how to get out of the photo app)

2. Walled Garden + Addiction -- Yes.. People stay inside the garden as long as they are well fed and watered.. Let me list them out..

a) you can buy almost all the software for small change and you cna download the same in all devices you use (with the same apple id)

b) You can buy all media (songs and videos) / rent videos for small change again.. and they are available in all devices you use (with the same apple id)

c) once you have developed addiction to the games and apps and also built up a sizeable chunk of digital assets in Apple Stores, you cannot leave the platform without losing them as well. And that can make a grown man shake and weep.. Addiction is very difficult to cure..

The one place where Apple still not delivering was iTunes (the only product of recent times from them to be absolutely hated even by fanboys) and as that is sorted now with the iCloud, most of the customers will NEVER EVER think about leaving iPhone / iPad products..

And those customers will upgrade every time a new iPhone comes out and the pre-orders will be more than a million easily.. I am looking forward to the next iPhone release when all 18 million iPhone users all apply for upgrade on the same day.. There is no guarantee it will not happen..

If and only if M$oft delivered something similar on the win phones by version 6 there may be some difference. But they had no clue, absolutely none.. No one else was in the picture then and no one else now to keep the customers in such a stranglehold..